I’m not exactly sure why this appears to be such big news, but it seems to be everywhere. Beer Marketer’s Insights is reporting that, based upon estimated numbers for 2011, Coors Light has overtaken Budweiser to become the 2nd best-selling beer in America. According to the report, “[t]his is the first time in almost 20 years, since 1993, that AB didn’t have top 2 brands.” But I note that according to IRI data, Miller Lite held the #2 spot at least as recently as 2007. Though to be fair, it’s true that Bud Light and Budweiser have enjoyed the top two spots, if off and on, for quite some time.
But the story isn’t so much about Coors Light being up (they were, but only 0.8%). What’s more interesting is that Budweiser was down 4.6%, which had more to do with the switch in positions. InBev seems to be struggling with the A-B core brands ever since they took over Anheuser-Busch. It can’t help that they’ve laid off countless employes, bullied suppliers and lost a great deal of goodwill through their cost-cutting way of doing business. They don’t seem to have the same relationship with consumers that the company did when it was run by the Busch family. And while the big breweries are losing ground to craft beer overall, ABI seems to losing more. So it makes sense that another brand would pick up the slack, catapulting Coors Light into the number two position, a spot Avis once upon a time used to great effect in their advertising. Maybe we’ll see Coors do something similar. “Coors Light is No. 2 in beer. We try harder.“
Thursday’s ad is for Coors, from 1977 — the year I graduated from high school. Showing a pilsner glass by a mountain stream, I love their suggestion. “Refrigerate to retain brewery fresh flavor.” Did people really need to be told that? I know Coors’ has been cold-obsessed for a long time, but were there people who were unaware that beer should be stored cool? Certainly we knew it in our household. My parents had a second refrigerator in the basement that always had beer in it, along with overflow from the upstairs kitchen refrigerator.
Monday’s ad is for Coors from around 1990, featuring the painting by artist Ellis Wilson entitled Funeral Procession. It was painted in the 1950s and currently hangs in the Aaron Douglas Collection in the Amistad Research Center at Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana.
The painting became well-known in 1985 “thanks to its appearance in the plot of an episode of The Cosby Show in 1985, during the second season of the long-running series. In the program, Mrs. Huxtable acquires the painting—which is ostensibly by her “great-uncle Ellis”—at auction, paying $11,500. At the end of the episode, Dr. Huxtable hung the painting over the living-room mantel, where it would stay for the duration of the series.” Coors used the painting for an ad celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The ad uses the slogan “His Truth Is Marching On” with a subtitle “In memory of the dream …”
Here’s the original painting:
Friday’s ad begins the holiday season with an ad for Coors with the appropriate slogan “‘Tis the Season … To Share the Tradition.” The ad is from 1990 and is for the now retired Coors seasonal Winterfest. From here through the end of the year I’ll be featuring holiday beer ads because Coors is right, ‘Tis the Season.
Thursday’s ad is for Coors. It’s an old advertising lithograph from around the 1890s. I love these kind of old ads that are merely showing off the industrial beauty of old breweries. This is, in a sense, vintage brewery porn. I attended a Coors event earlier tonight (more about that later) and so this seemed an appropriate ad to showcase today.
Several sources are pointing out a Reuters interview last week with Peter Swinburn, head of MolsonCoors. In that interview, Swinburn suggests that while he considers his company to be a “buyer,” he doesn’t discount the notion that MolsonCoors could be a takeover target. He further remarked that “SABMiller, Molson’s partner in the MillerCoors joint venture, would be a natural fit as a buyer.” While going on to say he doesn’t believe that will happen, this is, after all, how these types of things begin. A rumor that’s denied and discounted by all involved parties becoming a reality is nothing new, so you never know. Currently SABMiller is the 2nd largest global beer company and MolsonCoors in sixth. Though a merger wouldn’t eclipse A-B InBev at the top spot, it would move them closer together. Only time will tell.
